On November 25, 1863, the Second Minnesota charged up Missionary Ridge (previously called Mission Ridge), in southern Tennessee near the Georgia border. The Minnesotans were among a group of Union soldiers who advanced without orders, defeating the Confederate soldiers and resulting in a Union victory. Pictured prominently in the foreground of the painting is Judson W. Bishop, one of the Second's commanding officers.

Douglas Volk was the only Minnesota artist commissioned to create work for the new Capitol building in 1905. He created "Second Minnesota Regiment at Mission Ridge," and "Father Louis Hennepin Discovering the Falls of St. Anthony." Volk's Civil War painting will remain in its original Capitol location, but the Father Hennepin painting will be relocated and reinterpreted with more complete context of the time period.